red state has issued a formal “goodbye, mr. cheats” for dommie darko…apparently he will spend some time to “wander in the wilderness” for a while, “as he rightly should”:
all of the leadership of redstate has struggled mightily over the past few days, and have tried at every step to take the right course of action. now that the story is complete, we can move on.
[ed. note: you wish! more after the jump!]
if you, as many have done, dedicate thousands of man-hours to scrutinizing of his life’s work, you’ll find two things: first, you’ll find several instances of this behavior, some attributable to youth, and some not. second, you’ll find an amazingly talented writer, a man of principle, and an earnest young activist seeking not to advance himself — though advance he did — but the things he believed in.
[ed. note: or, you’ll find an opportunistic shallow-thinking son of a crony too lazy to do his own work. you decide]
certainly it may seem strange today to describe him as a “man of principle.”
[ed. note: this one is shooting fish in a barrel. insert your own joke here]
but those who know ben — and all of us on the rs leadership team do — know that he is passionate in his beliefs. they also know that he is human. it was ignoring this humanity that led to our earlier posts about the situation…
[ed. note: also, ignoring reality]
and for his failing, his career is in ruins, and his public reputation is in tatters. it is a long road back for ben domenech…and you know what? he’ll take the time to wander in the wilderness as he rightly should. he’ll walk that road.
[ed. note: cue the music: when you walk, through a storm, keep your head up high…]
the least the rest of us can do is be waiting for him at its end. so today, the world thinks ill of ben domenech. but perhaps it should step back a bit. his crime was not mortal, and his character is not irredeemable. indeed, most of his friends believe this episode a deviation from a core character that is fundamentally good. he is my friend. he is our friend and will remain so. he needs some time away from this – and he’ll get it in the form of a leave of absence.
[ed. note: wow. how often do you hear about someone getting fired from a blog?]
putting aside the charge for which ben has been pilloried and you’re left with is a particular group of critics.
[ed. note: aside from the fact that it’s no longer a charge, but an admitted crime of ethics, that’s rather like saying, “putting aside the whole raping and pillaging thing, genghis kahn was a pretty decent chap.”]
unlike ben, there is far less hope for their redemption. you see – before they settled on the attacks on his writing – they spent three days proving that they are the lowest of the low. charges of racism were born of poor reading comprehension.
[ed. note: oh, we see, “coretta scott king was a communist” makes fun of communists, not negros!]
threats of violence. obscene commentary about his mother, his sister, his father.
[ed. note: yeh, “his father was a bush appointee, who liaisoned with jack abramoff.” that is obscene…]
loathesome, vile, and disgusting – their contempt for civil behavior surpassed only by the emptiness of their own souls. these are a people that see a man who gives up drinking in the middle of his life for the sake of his family, and respond by creating rumors of cocaine addiction.
[ed. note: first we’ve heard of it, but we’ll happily pass it on. did you know dommie darko had a cocaine addiction?]
these are ignoramuses that think portraying an african-american politician as sambo is appropriate, as long as the critics are liberal and the target is a republican.
[ed. note: huh??]
our critics can raise their glasses and toast to what they think is success – tearing down a flawed conservative. but therein lies their greatest weakness: destroying a conservative is not to destroy conservatism.
[ed. note: if he was a real conservative, we wouldn’t have a problem with him. it’s the chickenhawk plagarist thing that got us.]
and while they put all their energy and venom into this campaign, it is worth remembering that for all the noise – they have yet to present a real alternative to an america that rests on the foundation of freedom, free markets and family.
[ed. note: here’s one: how about, the constitution?]
against that, the only answer they have is yet another personal attack.
[ed. note: f*ck you!]
addendum: the nytimes says pj o’roarke denies he ever gave dommie permission to use his words under dommie’s byline.
contacted at his home in new hampshire, mr. o’rourke said that he had never heard of mr. domenech and did not recall meeting him.
“i wouldn’t want to swear in a court of law that i never met the guy, mr. o’rourke said of mr. domenech, “but i didn’t give him permission to use my words under his byline, no.”
